Michael Dickinson gets off scot free

Good news from Turkey, where a court took about 20 minutes to decide that collage artist Michael Dickinson did not commit the crime of insulting the Turkish prime minister.

Good Boy: Tayyip Erdogan as a dog

We have blogged about Dickinson getting into trouble for insulting world leaders as far back as 2005, when his website was shut down for portraying Geoge Bush Jr with a cruise missile shooting out of his arse.

This case was about Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose head Dickinson is fond of pasting onto the body of a dog. The judge decided it was art, and not insulting.

The judge read out a testimonial letter from Professor Mehmet Ozer, an art teacher at Marmara University saying that in his opinion the collage ‘Good Boy’ was more an example of political criticism rather than an insult.

He said as Turkey was trying to join the European community a collage such as mine should not be held as a crime.

So I’m free, without even a fine. I’m very relieved to have it all over now after having lived under the shadow of the charge for the last two years.

Congratulations, Mr Dickinson.

2 Responses to “Michael Dickinson gets off scot free”

He has paid a hell of a price for his parodies. His residential permit was revoked after living in Turkey for twenty years and he spent ten days in jail on returning to the country on a tourist visa to answer the charges against him.